gas furnace goes boom


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Old 01-08-08, 10:20 AM
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gas furnace goes boom

not sure what kind of furnace we have as we just moved into this house. It is located under the house. We mainly use wood heat but there are times when we run out of wood and need to use the gas heater. It kicks in and then makes a loud boom which shakes the house. It only happens when it is first turned on and seems to happen more when it is really cold outside. Then the heater works fine. We used it for like 3 days straight and there were no booms. It oly happens when it hasn't been used in a while. It is a fairly new furnace (5 years old). What is causing this?? it makes me quite nervous.
 
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Old 01-08-08, 10:38 AM
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Originally Posted by somalove
not sure what kind of furnace we have as we just moved into this house. It is located under the house. We mainly use wood heat but there are times when we run out of wood and need to use the gas heater. It kicks in and then makes a loud boom which shakes the house. It only happens when it is first turned on and seems to happen more when it is really cold outside. Then the heater works fine. We used it for like 3 days straight and there were no booms. It oly happens when it hasn't been used in a while. It is a fairly new furnace (5 years old). What is causing this?? it makes me quite nervous.
Hi there. I don't know much about heaters. I'm actually waiting for some help with my own. However I have had a simliar problem with my own.

If you have a natural gas heater and it makes a loud boom before it turns on, it most likely is cause by delayed ignition of one or more of the burners. What happens is soot or grime, or whatever you want to call it, builds up between the pilot and the burners and blocks the pilot from contacting the burners properly. When this happens a very large amount of gas builds up and then ignites all at once causing a loud boom or explosion. If your heater has a flame pilot then you need to take a wire brush and clean around the pilot and the burners. If you have electronic ignition then your ingiter is probably not ingiting the 1st couple of times and needs to be replaced or cleaned.

I hope this was a little help. You might want to wait for a more experienced answer if you have never worked on a furnace. They can be dangerous.

-Wade
 
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Old 01-08-08, 12:03 PM
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Wadester did a great job explaining delayed ignition and that sounds like what you may have. Most of the time it's from a small spider that gets into the crossover tubes and builds a nest.

My suggestion would be to get a pro out there to do a good cleaning and safety inspection on it.
 
 

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